4

My question is simple enough: are there any presidential candidates for the 2016 election that have some formal training in mathematics?

What I'm looking for here is someone with at least a bachelors in Mathematics. Assuming there are none, are there any candidates that have received a university degree that would have required extensive mathematics? (Physicists, economists, basically any hard science...)

EDIT: While an MD goes through quite a bit of technical training, I would like to discount these for this specific question. Usually MDs get into a bit of calculus, I'm looking for a bit more mathematics than this.

Improve this question
4
  • Does an MD count under a hard science requirement?
    – Publius
    Aug 11, 2015 at 20:14
  • 1
    Oh, i forgot to mention that in the question. I'll edit it in a second. While it is a very technical field, I would prefer not to consider MDs.
    – Paddling Ghost
    Aug 11, 2015 at 20:18
  • If I may, what if the question was slightly expanded: What are the educational degrees each candidate holds?
    – user1530
    Aug 11, 2015 at 22:58
  • 1
    James Garfield had his own proof of the Pythagorean theorem based on the properties of trapezoids. Obviously not an answer to this question, but an interesting point of trivia in relation to Presidential math ability.
    – Brythan
    Apr 12, 2016 at 4:56

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
8

Donald Trump studied economics in college. Other than that, the closest I could find is that Lindsay Graham and Ben Carson studied psychology as undergraduates, and Rand Paul practiced as an ophthalmologist. None of the other candidates studied sciences.

Wikipedia pages for all candidates:

Democratic Candidates:

Republican Candidates:

Improve this answer
6
  • 3
    Neil deGrasse Tyson needs to run.
    – PointlessSpike
    Aug 12, 2015 at 8:19
  • 3
    @PointlessSpike - we already let scientists run the government once. That Didn't End Well
    – user4012
    Sep 1, 2015 at 22:48
  • 3
    "Inspired by liberal and radical ideas, the Revolution profoundly altered the course of modern history, triggering the global decline of absolute monarchies while replacing them with republics." It may have been carried out badly, but that doesn't invalidate the idea. If you'd like to discuss it further, we could do so in chat.
    – PointlessSpike
    Sep 2, 2015 at 7:32
  • @Avi Rand Paul was an optometrist/ophthalmologist (eyes), not an obstetrician (pregnancy)
    – costrom
    Apr 11, 2016 at 18:09
  • 1
    @costrom Thanks for pointing that out; I'd misread the wikipedia article (Ron Paul was the obstetrician).
    – Publius
    Apr 11, 2016 at 19:16

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .